A shopping spree would be great @dnuel. Our Walmart is one of the old small ones from 40 years ago so it mainly has necessities. They didn't even stock Lego until about 3 years ago and today stock about 40 sets, mostly the $20 and under stuff. But they mainly just sit there on the shelf, at full price and new sets are very slow to be added. Rarely do they stock anything over $49.99 in that section and no polys or CMF. Sniff...I put on a brave face, bite my bottom lip and push forward each day....sniff.

It's probably for the best but I did go to Walmart today and ask someone if they had the Mountain Hut in the back....nope. It shall be mine soon enough though.

That set has so many things going for it but I think I like the build in the lower left corner of the box best. Nice little build with that bridge and stream under it, the woodpecker in the tree is a very nice touch.

Yeah I really like the looks of this. It would be cool to throw some additional bricks at it to make the mountain a little bigger. As the licensed themes become increasingly more minifig focused, I find myself being drawn towards the creator line more and more. They just look like really fun, imaginative builds.

BTW, to give an idea of how bad SSD is compared to DS... the contents of SSD will fit nicely into a modular box, including instructions protected in the internal white box and all the parts sealed in the original bags.

The same is not true of DS, it won't at all fit into a modular box.

But you're right, way, way too many LEGO sets, you open them up, the box is 50% air (or more).

It appears that LEGO is getting better about this, the 2013 and even more so, the 2014 wave of sets seems to be in smaller boxes in general, with the exception of line flagships such as King's Castle (which clearly doesn't require that big box, but $100 sets seem to be in those boxes still).

Then again, Cargo Plane and the new 2014 Police Station are in smaller boxes, slightly... it helps...

It appears that LEGO is getting better about this, the 2013 and even more so, the 2014 wave of sets seems to be in smaller boxes in general, with the exception of line flagships such as King's Castle (which clearly doesn't require that big box, but $100 sets seem to be in those boxes still).

They tried the smaller box thing before and I think it didn't work out because of how drastic it was. I think they are trying to shrink boxes but do it more gradually so that they aren't as noticeably smaller compared to last years sets on the shelf. Once last years are gone from shelves then next years can be slightly smaller than this year. Eventually they'll be optimized and people won't notice as much.

one of the issues with smaller boxes with some sets is that the box art then doesn't successfully showcase the size of the set. This doesn't apply to most sets of course, but there are always some that you just get a much better impression of when you see it built and on display then you do looking at the box.

Seeing as most people get the bigger sets via online, the concept of a bigger box doesn't mean as much, unless you're shooting for huge impact when unwrapping a big box at a birthday party. I'm actually surprised they don't have two different boxes for the monster sets - big ones to display in the B&M stores and smaller ones that get shipped.

^ that complicates the logistics of manufacturing, correctly shipping the right size to which locations, and knowing how much of each to manufacture, which probably costs more in the long run than the savings made up from a slightly smaller box when shipping.

What a cute set! Picked up a Mountain Hut at the Raleigh LEGO store along with multiple Little Eagles for just 98 cents each! What a steal at about 2 cents a piece in those polybags! And one of my all time favorites. Our store manager would not say when the PR will go on sale, but they should arrive this week. Fingers crossed.

Yup, the little eagles are a wonderful gift for anyone of any age! I am giving them to the three best friends of my 90 year old mom…for Christmas presents to celebrate Mom's passing and our first Christmas without her. I will build them for the ladies at lunch tomorrow if they want and hand them each a bag of shelled new pecans from NC. These do make an ideal gift and can't be beat at that price. So do check out your LEGO store ASAP.Has anyone looked to see if lego.com has any left at this price?